1. Freestone
2. Price
3. Howard
4. O'Leary
5. Smith
6. Romo
7. Jenkins
8. Lacey
9. Keegan @
10. Savarese
11. Roberts

    ---

12. Mounty
13. Casey @ #
14. Bound
15. Cusack #
16. Boyd

 Reading

What a difference a goal makes! Make no mistake, up until the 75th minute, this was a DIRE match. Everyone around me was questioning why they were there – most agreed it was out of habit. To be fair, I did spot some Stepfords, but as usual these were behind the North Bank supping ale. (Note to Mike Lewis: opening a bar during the match does have some benefits; it gives those with no interest in the game something to do).

First surprise was JH living up to his stubborn John tag by keeping Bound and Cusack on the bench. Watkin was missing through suspension and the Swans lined up as follows:-

Freestone
Price, Smith, O'Leary, Howard
Keegan, Romo, Lacey, Jenkins
Roberts, Savarese
Subs: Bound, Cusack, Mounty, Casey, De Vulgt?

Despite the talk in the press about Reading fielding a full strength team, apart from their back four, most shirt numbers were in the teens as was the age of the occupants. Up front they had the formidable pairing of Cureton and Rougier, the latter making quite an abrasive opponent for both Smith and O'Leary.

As the game settled into a sort of pattern, it became clear that Reading were relying on route one football while Swansea tried to play the ball around. With no obvious wide players, this met with limited success and the result were long bouts of head tennis in the centre of the field.

Swansea were guilty of wasting their final balls in by pumping the ball skywards to the giant pairing of Viveash and Hunter at the heart of the Reading defence who gobbled up this tactic.

First scare of the night came on 13 minutes when Rougier, clearly a yard offside, was allowed to head for goal. Fortunately the defence covered for one of many blunders by linesman Buller who was clearly viewing the match in a different dimension to those directly behind him on the North Bank.

Consistently he missed Reading infringements and saw non-existent Swansea ones. Imagine the ref finding that he was an official short and going into the Reading crowd to ask their most one-eyed supporter to officiate – and you just about have it.

As to the referee himself, R J Olivier, more later – but to say he was one of the weakest refs seen would be an understatement.

With 20 mins gone, Swans progressed through the centre of the pitch and Romo played an exquisite ball to the feet of Roberts in full flow on the edge of the area. His momentum carried him beyond the attempted lean on by the centre half and you would have put money on him beating the keeper one to one. Whether it was the nudge that had put him off balance or just a good save from keeper Howie, I don't know. But we had to settle for just the corner.

The game reverted to head tennis for another prolonged period before Swans came strong in the last few minutes of the half, forcing a succession of corners that came to nowt.

Half time: 0-0

Reading replaced Rougier with Butler (not a bad swap) and it was 13 minutes into the game again that the first real excitement came. This time it was courtesy of the latest Internet whinger – Roger Freestone.

A tricky dribble from the right wing virtually along the goal line saw Roger dive low to his front post to thwart what looked to be the opening goal. His parried save rolled back out towards the flag where it was once again whipped across the area. The ball fell invitingly on the edge of the box to Butler? Who volleyed it sweetly into the far corner – but Roger for the second time in 15 seconds made a miraculous save by diving fully stretched to his right to push it around the post for a corner.

This was the turning point and JH replaced the ineffective Keegan with Casey. This gave some missing balance to the team with Casey going wide left and Stu coming wide right. The instructions were clear as Casey pumped in high cross after high cross – not all meeting with success. The effect of this was to make the two giant centre halves look a little uncomfortable for the first time in the match.

The breakthrough came with 15 minutes left. Price made ground down the right and fed Jenkins whose predictable cross was easily blocked by the full back. But the block rebounded to Stuart Roberts who headed for the by-line and put over a cross which cleared the Reading defence and keeper to find Savarese (in space he had made for himself) on the back post where he directed his powerful header home.

All the head tennis was forgotten and thoughts of Millennium stadium visits came into play.

The last 15 minutes were the most disgraceful seen for a long time, with the Reading players lining up to take turns at kicking our players. Instead of dealing with this thuggery firmly, referee Olivier either brandished a yellow card of gave a finger wagging.

The result of this leniency saw Casey stretchered off with what looked like a serious knee injury and how Stuart Roberts didn't end up with a similar fate, god only knows.

A disgraceful display by 2 out of the 3 match officials.

An excellent result but can we please field our strongest XI against Bristol City on Saturday Mr Hollins?

108 days after I saw us last win a football match, we finally won one at the Vetch tonight in front of a reasonable 2500 crowd.

I'm not sure exactly how many South Wales Police were expecting to turn up but I failed to see the need for Police Horses to be parading the streets before the game.

Onto the game itself, Swans lined up as

Freestone, Price, Smith, O'Leary, Howard, Romo, Lacey, Jenkins, Keegan, Savarese and Roberts.

Stuart Roberts lined up alongside Gio up front with Jenkins occurpying wide right and Jenkins wide left.

It was a subdued first half with chances at a premium. Stuart Roberts was set through for a one on one with the keeper and appeared to try and lift it over the keeper without actually lifting it and the ball drifted away for a corner. From the corner, Smith had a free header at goal which was directed wide.

Jamie Cureton at the other end was showing pace without looking threatening and a fairly even first half ended 0-0.

The second half began with Reading throwing on leading scorer Butler in a clear attempt to try and get a result in the 90 minutes. They started to look the stronger of the two sides and only a couple of good saves from Roger kept the score blank.

Hollins responded by replacing Keegan with Casey, switching Jenkins to the right to accomodate the change.

Another Reading attack saw Butler (?) appear to get clear on Smith who dived in and I was sure had given away a penalty - I would be interested in the view of those that were nearer pitch level on this. If it was a penalty then a red card would have immediately followed.

Reading seemed to lose momentum and again Swansea were comfortable at 0-0. As most of the crowd were thinking of extra time, golden goal and possible penalties, Stuart Roberts won a loose ball in the area, reached the by-line and hit a measured cross for Gio to put the ball into the back of the net with a good downward header. 1-0 Swansea.

Challenges, especially on Roberts, were becoming stronger and the notebook was more in evidence as players were being bought down. One of these challenges, resulted in Casey being stretchered off and replaced by Cusack. Jenkins moved back to the right as Romo took left to allow Cusack into the middle and bar one nearish miss, Swansea never looked in danger.

Roberts again was being kicked around the park and a clear hand in the face was missed by another inept linesman. To be fair, Roberts was giving plenty of lip to the Reading defenders and the ref also missed two kicks from him on a player when Roberts was down.

These challenges will undoubtedly add more spice to the league meeting in a few weeks.

Result 1-0 Swansea, not a classic but a confidence booster as Reading had a good team out tonight (on paper)

Swindon, Brentford or Southend wait in the area semi finals, 3 matches from the Millennium Stadium. Now we have to build on this.